Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Note: The above Teddy Bear is completely random and not in any way associated with the story

The arrest of the British school teacher Gillian Gibbons in Khartoum has surprised if not outraged many in the UK. Some have mocked her naivety, others have praised her courage but the majority sympathised with her plight. If the Sudanese regime was in any doubt over its image abroad following the conflict in Darfur, it can now rest assured that it has lost any remaining credibility. The issue of proselytising in Muslim countries is a serious one that many western expatriates in the Gulf states would be familiar with. It is even more sensitive when young children are involved.

The general public do not have access to the details of the case but if the available information is to be taken at face value one wonders why would this middle aged teacher with years of experience choose to deliberately insult the religion of her host country. And why would naming a well loved Teddy Bear Mohammad, which incidentally is the name of a pupil at the school and of millions around the world be considered a specific insult at the prophet by the same name. Maybe there is more to it and indeed Ms Gibbons is intentionally working to damage intercultural and inter-religious understanding. If that is the case then surely extradition would be enough to make the point that cuddly toys with specific names are not welcome in Sudan.

Arabdemocracy

By Opheera McDoom Reuters - Tuesday, November 27

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A 7-year-old Sudanese student on Tuesday defended the British teacher accused of insulting Islam saying he had chosen to call a teddy bear Mohammad because it was his own name.Gillian Gibbons, a 54-year-old teacher at the Unity High School in Khartoum, was arrested on Sunday after complaints from parents that she had insulted Islam's Prophet by allowing the bear to be named Mohammad. She is facing a third night in jail without being formally charged."The teacher asked me what I wanted to call the teddy," the boy said shyly, his voice barely rising above a whisper. "I said Mohammad. I named it after my name," he added.Sitting in his garden wearing shorts, his family, who did not want their full names used, urged him to describe what had happened.He said he was not thinking of Islam's Prophet when asked to suggest a name, adding most of the class agreed with his choice.In a writing exercise students were asked to keep a diary of what they did with the teddy bear. "Some people took the teddy home and took it places with them ... like the swimming pool," the child said.Mohammad said Gibbons was "very nice" and he would be upset if she never came back to teach. He added Gibbons had not discussed religion nor did she mention the Prophet."We studied maths and English and spelling," he said, rubbing his mop of short, curly hair.FORMAL CHARGESJustice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told Reuters formal charges would be levelled once investigations had been completed."(The charges) are under the Sudanese penal code ... insulting religion and provoking the feelings of Muslims," he said."These are preliminary -- after investigation the final charges will be ascertained," he added.If charged and convicted of insulting Islam, Gibbons could be sentenced to 40 lashes, six months in prison or a fine, lawyers said.Teaching colleagues and officials from the British embassy brought food for Gibbons but were not allowed to visit her.Mohammad's family said they got most of their information from the papers after the school was closed early on Monday."I'm annoyed ... that this has escalated in this way," his mother said. "If it happened as Mohammad said there is no problem here - it was not intended."His uncle said little Mohammad was a good Muslim and was already praying five times a day. "We want to also hear her side of the story," he added.Unity director Robert Boulos had said the school would be closed until January because he was afraid of reprisals in mainly Muslim Khartoum.In 2005 a Sudanese paper was closed for three months and its editor arrested for reprinting articles questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammad, a move which prompted angry protests.Al-Wifaq editor Mohamed Taha was later abducted from his home by armed men and beheaded.(Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens, editing by Mary Gabriel)

Friday, November 23, 2007

I remember in details the election of General Emile Lahoud to the Lebanese presidency nine years ago to the day. I had left the country the previous year and still suffering from acute nostalgia, a disease experienced by many fresh expatriates. One of my symptoms consisted of religiously following the latest developments in Lebanon through various news outlets and reporting back in real time to friends and family back home. Needless to say they were busy getting on with their lives and generally not impressed with this obsessive behaviour.

I received the news of his election with certain unease. I never felt strongly about the man and was anyway naturally suspicious of anyone in uniform. But at one point I probably believed he was the embodiment of the sincere and honest military leader: The type who had his country’s best interest at heart and would work to bring back law and order to our vulnerable nation. I phoned a friend who lived in Beirut and for her own reasons shared my scepticism. We had a long conversation while in the background the city was on fire with hundreds from all sects celebrating. They expressed their joy from the various neighbourhoods, from Ashrafieh to Tareek Jdide and Ouzai using fireworks, the occasional machine gun staccato and other ‘traditional’ celebratory rituals. The feelings were genuine and the sense of hope overwhelming. We felt like the two only people who did not share this enthusiasm with our compatriots.

Here I am thousands of miles away being a grumpy sod, time would prove me wrong! I thought… But it didn’t.

Nine years later, still abroad but less obsessive, I receive the news of his departure not with relief but with resentment and fear. It is true I will not have to suffer the eternally tanned vain general receiving minor celebrities from obscure village associations anymore but the future still appears grim with another general in the pipeline.

Monday, November 19, 2007

“What is the nationality of your Srilanki?... My Srilanki is from the Philippines”. This catchy phrase made many people laugh in the mid-nineties when it featured in a play in Beirut. ‘Srilanki’ and ‘maid’ were being used interchangeably due to the numbers of citizens from Srilanka working as domestic cleaners in Lebanese households.For many years the Lebanese operated as if racism was an alien concept to their generally welcoming and friendly culture. Stereotyping a whole racial group was mainstream behaviour transmitted down the generations. In many cases the behaviour did not stop there and turned into psychological and physical abuse under the acquiescing eye of the state.

The problem recently took a different dimension. When a journalist visiting Lebanon filmed a report for French television followed by an article in the very respectable Le Monde newspaper on how foreign maids were being treated, many Lebanese were scandalized. Why! Some thought, they were shown as monsters? Others turned suddenly very patriotic. They felt it gave a very bad image of the country, which has already enough problems and working very hard to attract investments and tourists. Very few Lebanese people felt unthreatened even when they treated their maids with respect and sometimes even as a member of the family.

The polemic returned again a few days ago, when the International organization Human Rights Watch issued a report on the abuse of domestic workers in the Middle East, generously mentioning Lebanon. This report was widely disseminated, and the Lebanese public insisted again that this matter was unnecessarily ruining the reputation of their already martyred country.

But some solid facts from both reports cannot be rebutted and these are:

- Passports of foreign domestic workers are being held by their employers.- Maids are working more than 12 hours a day.- The Privacy of domestic workers in most cases is not respected.- Cases of physical abuse exist on a large scale, and it is not as some claim very limited.- Laws on improving the conditions of domestic workers are far from being a reality.- Domestic workers appear in most cases to have obligations but no rights.

We highlight complaints from Arabs suffering racism in the West but wrap ourselves in denial when we are accused of subhuman and degrading treatment of other nationalities and races. So well done France 2, Le Monde and HRW for bringing these cases to our attention. Maybe now that it is out in the open, every Lebanese “Madam” will think twice before slapping her “Srilanki” maid in the face to teach her a lesson. And hopefully it will put some pressure on our governments to finally reform laws concerning foreign domestic workers.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

We hear frequently enough of Arab immigrants succeeding in the business world or the financial sphere but the European political landscape remains alien to them. Naser Khader, offspring of a Syrian-Palestinian couple, is the new kid on the block of Danish politics. His success story might be an exception or the first signs of a long-awaited integration process whereby European citizens of Arab and Western descent can live their dual identity comfortably and productively. An interesting case for discussion.

Arabdemocracy

ELECTIONS IN DENMARK

Muslim Politician Could Be Surprise KingmakerBy Anna Reimann

Danish politician Naser Khader is young, energetic and the first Muslim MP in Denmark. As head of the New Alliance he could end up being the surprise kingmaker in Danish politics if voters throw their support behind his new ideas for how to treat immigrants.

Danish MP Naser Khader threatens to be the surprise kingmaker in next week's Danish elections.Naser Khader seems to be everywhere -- shaking hands in pedestrian malls and strolling through the streets of Danish cities in jeans and a parka. In the morning, he announces his latest proposals on immigration policy. In the evening, he takes part in an election debate with Pia Kjærsgaard, the chairwoman of the right-wing populist Danish People's Party. There is no doubt about it: The 44-year-old politician is doing everything he can in the final phase of the Danish election campaign.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Worker's Party of Kurdistan better know under its Kurdish acronym PKK has been waging armed struggle against the Turkish state since the 1980s. Its stated aims have changed over time but focus around the recognition of Kurdish rights and a minimum of self-autonomy. Labelled as a terrorist organisation in many Western capitals, it is again the centre of attention following the resurgence of military operations on the Turkish Iraqi border and the threat of Turkish incursions in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. In her interview of a former militant Deborah Haynes reveals a personal account of life with the militia. As seen in many similar organisations such as the FARC of Colombia, The LTTE of Srilanka or the Moujahideen Khalq Iran, the PKK appears to have achieved an equality between the sexes in life and death. But all at a price. Inspired freedom fighters or Brainwashed fanatic terrorists...You make your own mind.

Arabdemocracy

For her the war is over: the PKK fighter who wants to end killingDeborah Haynes in Irbil, northern Iraq

With her Kalashnikov folded in half to stop it dragging on the ground and ammunition strapped around her tiny waist, Zerya was 12 when she became a Kurdish fighter in the Turkish mountains after running away from home. Sixteen years later her body bears the scars of countless battles with Turkish soldiers and her eyes are haunted by the memories of friends she has lost. No longer a guerrilla for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), she is trying to fit back into society, using a mobile phone for the first time and discovering treats such as ice cream and pizza that she never had in the mountains. Zerya’s experience of fighting against Turkey to secure greater rights for the Kurds, she says, has taught her that the problem can be solved only by agreement between both sides. “If the guerrillas decided to come down from the mountains and disarm, then Turkey would kill all of them,” she said, speaking to The Times at a secret location in the Kurdish north of Iraq. “When it comes to Turkey you either submit or you fight – there are only two options,” said the 28-year-old, who has shed the dark green fatigues of the outlawed rebel group for a smart trouser suit and heeled shoes. The PKK offered a new way for both sides to step away from confrontation yesterday. The group said that it was open to dialogue with Turkey that could lead to it laying down its arms, thus avoiding a war across the border of two of America’s strategic allies in the region. Zerya’s life as a teenage rebel fighter began when she first heard about the PKK as a ten-year-old growing up in Hamburg, where her Kurdish family were asylum-seekers from the mountains of southern Turkey. A talented musician and dancer, she became attracted to the organisation because it ran clubs that taught Kurdish songs and history. “Every song or poem taught us something about the Kurdish cause,” she said in a hushed voice to avoid drawing attention to herself. The PKK is now classed as a terrorist organisation by much of the international community. Captivated by the plight of the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, Zerya yearned to help: “It was like an illness for me. I just wanted to go to Kurdistan and fight in the mountains.” After a year of pestering PKK leaders in Hamburg she was given permission to travel on a fake Turkish passport to Syria, where she was meant to stay until she turned 16 and was deemed old enough to learn how to fight. She left Germany aged 12, without telling her parents. But instead of waiting in Syria she secretly followed a group of PKK trainees to Lebanon, literally tracing their footprints until she arrived at the Bekaa Valley. There, she was allowed to join a six-month political and military training course with 300 recruits. “I remember walking along a path with a Kalashnikov over my shoulder but it was too long for me and would hit the ground,” Zerya said, recalling the day her training finished and she was sent to the mountains to fight. “That first day I felt I was free and in my home for the first time in my life.” Instead of studying, gossiping about boys and listening to pop music, Zerya spent her teenage years fighting Turkish soldiers, living off scraps of food and sleeping wherever she found shelter. “We lived in caves or just used plastic sheets for cover. Sometimes if the weather was kind then we would live under the stars like birds.” By the time she was 14, Zerya was commanding small groups of rebels on operations. Equality is a principle cherished by the PKK, which divides responsibility evenly between men and women fighters. She recalled one occasion when her unit became encircled by Turkish soldiers. “I spotted a weak point in the Turkish line and started to lead my colleagues out but one young man panicked. I had to slap him to calm him down.” On another occasion, aged 16, a Turkish grenade exploded close by, sending a chunk of shrapnel deep into her left knee. “In the heat of the fight I did not feel the pain, but then I had difficulty moving so my male colleagues took me to safety.” The guerrillas had nothing to treat Zerya with other than water and thread to stitch up her knee. She was forced to shelter in a cave for two months until she was strong enough to walk again. “It was winter and bitterly cold. It was too dangerous to light a fire because that would have drawn attention to our position.” Sexual relationships, and certainly falling in love, are forbidden between PKK fighters in the mountains because the group feels that such a bond would distract a couple from the battle. Zerya spoke of one young man she grew close to. “He liked me and I liked him but we never told each other,” she said. The man was killed during a fight with Turkish troops. Zerya had her fair share of injuries after 13 years in the mountains, including shrapnel wounds to the chest and thigh. She began to feel a burden on her fellow fighters so decided three years ago to leave the armed struggle to seek shelter in the Kurdish north of Iraq. Returning to civilisation was like stepping out of a time capsule. Life is hard after the PKK because her past means that she has no official identity or nationality and no passport. “I would like to settle down and do some work to help women and children,” she said. She is trying to return to Germany, where her family is still living. Asked whether she would ever return to the front line for the PKK, Zerya says that her fighting days are over. “From my time in the mountains, I have understood one thing: killing is not the solution to this problem.”

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Sexuality is a difficult subject. Homosexuality is even more tricky in that it polarises opinions and generates heated debates where the personal, the social and the religious are intertwined. At a time where most Lebanese are focused on the election of a new president some might argue that this topic is not a priority.But In the real world personal issues are not placed on hold waiting for the future to unravel. They are lived and experienced on a daily basis. There isnt a good time to talk about gay life in the Middle East so today is as good as any other.

In some Arab countries homosexuals can face the death penalty. But in Lebanon an association battles openly for the rights of gays who may live freely but are still ostracized socially.

"Beirut is a bubble of freedom for homosexuals," said Georges Azzi, coordinator for the Helem (Dream) Association, the Arab world's first gay grouping.

"Homosexuals have much more freedom and are more visible than in any other Arab state," he told Agence France Presse.

"This is undoubtedly because Lebanese society is heterogeneous at all levels -- political, religious and cultural -- and used to differences," he said about the country's 18 religious communities.

Homosexuals are generally stigmatized and penalized across the Arab world, with penalties ranging from death to flagellation and imprisonment.

Either banned by law or religion, homosexuality may be punishable by the death penalty in Mauritania, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

But with its trendy gay-friendly bars and nightclubs, Beirut has become a favorite destination for wealthy Arab homosexuals fleeing restrictions at home.

Founded in 2004, Helem collaborates with the ministry of health to fight against the spread of the HIV virus that can cause AIDS and openly lobbies for the legal rights of homosexuals.

Homosexuality is not specifically illegal in Lebanon, but gays can be targeted under article 543 of the penal code which provides for prison terms of up to one year for sexual relations "against nature."

A petition filed by a Beirut city councilor in 2006 seeking prosecution of Helem was rejected by the attorney general's office, which ruled that just because the gay rights group had an office and a website this did not mean it was breaking the law.

"In the beginning journalists used to come and see us, like one would go to the zoo," said Azzi. "But today we have become known and respected."

This evolution has also been seen in the language used to refer to gays.

"In the Lebanese media we used to be called 'perverts' and 'deviants' but now they just call us 'homosexuals'," Bilal, an official at Helem who did not wish to reveal his family name, told AFP.But if Lebanon seems outwardly more permissive than other Arab countries, homosexuals can still live in shame, fear of scandal and social exclusion.

"Seen from the outside, Lebanon is a liberal country which respects personal freedoms," Linda Shartouni Zahm, a researcher in social psychology at the Lebanese University, said.

"But we are the prisoners of others' views -- of the family, religion and an authoritarian patriarchal system," she said.

"There are homosexuals who receive death threats from members of their own families, others who are expelled from school or some who have to leave Lebanon," she said.

Some homosexuals in the country lead double lives."Personally I refuse to remain in the closet, but I am an exceptional case," said 37-year-old Jean,criticizing "people who are gay on Saturday night, but pretend they are not during the family lunch on Sunday."

When he was 19, Jean told his father that he was a homosexual.

"His reaction was to tell me: 'OK, get married, have children and live your sexual life in parallel -- discreetly'," he said."He gave me examples of people he knew who lived exactly like that," Jean said.

Shartouni Zahm explained that "having descendants and children is very important here. And the Lebanese mother always dreams of marrying her daughter off."

As for lesbians, they have double the trouble.

"Make no mistake -- Lebanon is a country of macho and conservative people where women are considered inferior and are discriminated against," said 25-year-old Nadine, a member of Meem association that supports lesbian rights.

"The Lebanese want to show the Arab world that they are open-minded. But most young people generally carry the conservative ideas of their parents," she said.

"If my parents do not let me go out it is not because I am gay, it's because I'm a woman."(AFP)

Monday, November 5, 2007

After nearly 60 years of conflict, a US based organization has decided to call for “Justice for Jews from Arab Countries”. One stated objective is to push for the introduction in the US Senate and House of resolutions that any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees in any official document must be matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees. The views of the pro-Arab lobby on the issue are not known. In fact the pro-Arab lobby is yet to be identified.Below, extracts from Warren Hoge’s article in the New York Times on the 5th of November 2007 published under the title: Group Spotlights Jews Who Left Arab Lands.

Arabdemocracy

With assertions of the rights of Palestinians to reclaim land in Israel expected to arise at an planned Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Md., a Jewish advocacy group has scheduled a meeting in New York on Monday to call attention to people it terms “forgotten refugees.”The organizing group, Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, says it is referring to the more than 850,000 Jews who left their homes in Arab lands after the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.“This did not occur by happenstance, as is sometimes said,” said Stanley A. Urman, executive director of the group, a five-year-old New-York-based organization. “In fact, we have found evidence that there was collusion among the Arab nations to persecute and exploit their Jewish populations.”To back the claim, the group has reproduced copies of a draft law composed by the Arab League in 1947 that called for measures to be taken against Jews living in Arab countries. The proposals range from imprisonment, confiscation of assets and forced induction into Arab armies to beatings, officially incited acts of violence and pogroms.Subsequent legislation and discriminatory decrees enacted by Arab governments against Jews were “strikingly similar” to the actions laid out in the draft law, Mr. Urman said.(…)With the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the status of Jews in Arab countries changed dramatically, because most of those countries either declared war on Israel or supported the war to destroy the new state.The group cites United Nations figures showing that 856,000 Jewish residents left Arab countries in 1948.“This was not just a forced exodus, it was a forgotten exodus,” said Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian minister of justice who is scheduled to be the main speaker at Monday’s program to open the campaign on behalf of the Jewish refugees.For that reason, he said, the main goal of the campaign was to raise public awareness rather than to seek compensation. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the other components of redress, recognition, remembrance and acknowledgment of the wrongs committed,” he said.(…) The United Nations says that 711,000 Palestinians left Israel-controlled territory in 1948 and 1949 and that today, along with their descendants, the number of Palestinian refugees is at least four million.“There is mention, as there should be, of Palestinian refugees, but no mention of Jewish refugees,” Mr. Cotler said of the annual commemoration.Another objective is to push for early passage of resolutions introduced in the US Senate and House that say that any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees in any official document must be matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees.The American-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis is planned to take place before the end of the year to address core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict like borders, the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees.“We want to have this meeting now, in advance of the Annapolis conference, to ensure that this issue is front and center in the international awareness as it should be,” Mr. Urman said.(…) Mr. Cotler said a change in perception would help bring the region’s antagonists together.“I know this may sound Pollyannaish, but I believe that if we allow people to understand the truth of what occurred, then they will be able to recognize the other,” he said. “Right now the other is being demonized.”

Thursday, November 1, 2007

If you have read the incomparable Pauline Réage’s Histoire d’O (Story of O) you might have heard of the very bizarre story of Lord Glenelg, mentioned in the Jean Paulhan’s Preface (the French writer, critic, director of the NRF and member of the Académie Française) for the novel published in 1954.

It appears that in the spring of 1838, on the Caribbean Island of Barbados and in response to the new law on the abolition of slavery, a certain Lord Glenelg set his slaves free; however, these slaves refused their new found freedom and requested strongly that their Lord place them back under his authority. Glenelg refused, probably more out of respect for the law than out of Humanism… the essential thing is that he rejected utterly his previous slaves’ unusual demand. And what did these do, in response? They massacred their old oppressor along with his family, for denying them the “right” to be exploited!!Apparently, a victim can develop a morbid affective bond with his executioner, an unexplainable infatuation that goes much beyond the cliché of Sadism and Masochism. This is the parallel drawn with Histoire d’O, the story of an obedient young woman, O, and her dominant jailer-lovers which explore this phenomenon, from an erotic, yet psychosocial and existential point of view.

That was in the 19th century; now a slightly different story from the 20th century. On August 1973, in Stockholm, an abducted bank employee, Kristin, fell under the charm of one of her abductors, Jan Erik, the man robbing the bank and holding the people inside. The hostage fell under the spell of the terrorist; moreover, she fell in love with him. She, along with five other victims, abandoned their fellow hostages and adopted the “ideology” of their kidnappers. Things did not stop here. After their release and his arrest, this “converted” group refused to press any charges against their abductors, visited them in prison and defended their cause! This rather unusual behaviour was named after the case by an American psychiatrist: the “Stockholm Syndrome”.

In more recent times in the 21st century, we heard a similar anecdote. It seems that every century has its own “fairy-tale”: Yvonne Ridley, the former British reporter for the Sunday Express was kidnapped by the Taliban while reporting in Afghanistan in September 2001.This ex-supporter of the Labour Party and later Muslim convert confessed after her release that the first thing she said the moment she laid eyes on her kidnapper, was: “Wow! You’re gorgeous!” and she admitted that she was taken by the beauty of his “amazing green eyes” and his big dark beard etc. etc. It wouldn’t come as a surprise that these stories tend to follow a certain predictable pattern. If we consider the last two cases, we observe a certain sexual submissive fantasy that is pushed beyond the norms (psychoanalytic theory, for instance, talks about a recurrent feminine fancy: “the fantasy of getting raped”).

What concerns me personally and the question that I have been asking myself is the following: Are we Arabs perpetually under the influence of this so called “Stockholm Syndrome”? Maybe my question has a specific validity in the Lebanese case, where in theory have the “freedom”, the “choice” to admire this or that popular leader, to scorn one and to applaud another while jeering at a third. In essence to vote for X, and not for Y.Do we praise and cherish the ones who will lead us eventually to catastrophe? It seems that we Lebanese have a considerable predisposition for this alarming syndrome and sustained humiliation. What better example than an old yet famous episode of the Lebanese version of Candid Camera, where the victim, a young man passing by, is asked to take part in a movie scene where an attractive young actress slaps him on his face. In response to which he repeats the following line “bardou ba7ibbak ya wa7sh” (“despite all, I still love you, O you savage!”) .However, as the “director” is displeased with the outcome the scene is repeated and so is the humiliation.Take one: the accomplice slaps the victim on his face and the latter cries “bardou ba7ibbak ya wa7sh”Take two: the accomplice slaps the victim on his face and the latter cries “bardou ba7ibbak ya wa7sh”Take three, four, five until the crew realize this could go on and on……………………………………….

Who will break the karma’s never-ending cycle? When will we convert to the “Lima Syndrome” 1 instead, where our oppressors sympathize with their victims?

1. This syndrome is considered to be the opposite of the one we evoked, as in December 1996, “terrorists” (members of the MRTA Marxist guerillas) took over the Japanese embassy in Lima (in Peru! Of course), and they showed high empathy for their hostages, and their needs…

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